WHEEZING
PREVALENCE IN CHILDHOOD IN BURSA (TURKEY)
Sapan N, Alper Z, Canitez Y, Bilgel N, Ediz B
Uludag University, Dept. of
Pediatric Allergy, Turkey
Wheezing in childhood is one
of the most frequent symptom of childhood respiratory tract illnesses and
is important not only of its acute morbidity, but also because it has been
suggested that children with wheezing in early childhood may have a higher
risk for asthma. Epidemiological studies from different countries showed
that 25 % of children under 5 years had one kind of wheezing associated
respiratory illness and one-third of these wheezy ınfants developed asthma
later in life. We investigated the association between wheezing and
prenatal, natal and postnatal, familial, and enviromental risk factors in
858 children aged 7 years in first classes of 7 primary schools randomly
choosen in the metropolitan municipalty of Bursa via a questionnary which
were filled in by parents. We found 107 children had early transient
wheezing (12.4 %), 61 had persistent wheezing (7.1 %), 66 had late-onset
wheezing (7.6 %) and 624 (72.7 %) never had wheezing. 33.3 % of children
who had wheezing in first year had doctor-diagnosed asthma. Male sex, lower
socioeconomic status, premature born, maternal smoking during pregnancy,
bottle feeding before 2 months, dampness and mould at home, hospitalisation
in infancy because of a respiratory tract illness, croup history during 6
months - 5 years, frequent upper respiratory tract infection in first 3
years, doctor-diagnosed asthma and allergic eczema of the child and any
allergic disease of mother and siblings were more associated with wheezing
of first 3 years. Breast feeding seemed to have protective effect against
wheezing in first 3 years of life.